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All posts for the month November, 2009

This is a bit long, but it’s worth sitting through, whether you think it’s funny or you think the Japanese have gone overboard with their pranks. The Japanese have always had an odd sense of humor. This kind of prank would never work in the U.S. or in the Philippines. Personally, I think it’s pretty mean, verging on cruel, especially since it involves a kid. But this was actually televised on Japanese national television. Anyway, have a see and make up your own mind. LOL or cruel?

Here’s another one from the same show. I forgot the title of the show, but it’s something like, “king of scary face”, or something that sounds like that. After watching this, you’ll understand why.

Remember, the Japanese also came up with the sexually groundbreaking cinematic moment, “In The Realm Of The Senses”, where sex and death were inherently intertwined. Their point of view is decidedly unique, and what passes off as offensive to other cultures, is accepted as a genuine inquiry into the human state. Value judgments are withheld, and the myriad conclusions eagerly awaited. I’m endlessly fascinated with the way the Japanese collective mind works. They often blur the distinctions between right and wrong, and redefines what is acceptable and what isn’t. I don’t always agree with it, in fact I often vacillate between being impressed and getting offended, but I’m mesmerized at the skewed way their logic sometimes progresses. So their approach to humor is no different to the oftentimes odd manner by which they tackle the other aspects of life like sex and death; you may not always get it, but you’re drawn to it, much like how some people could not turn their eyes away from an impending train wreck.

Rejection is something we deal with everyday. Even the people whom we probably think have never been rejected have their own stories to tell. It’s almost annoying when you hear really good-looking celebrities saying how ugly they feel. You almost want to say, “kung kayo pangit, paano na kami?” Hehe…but there’s nothing like rejection to make you feel ugly and unappealing.

February 19, 2009 → The Top Ten Signs That He’s/She’s Just Not That Into You – Loi Pogi

This plays out like one of my nightmares. But this clip really brought me back to my childhood. I was reared on Sesame Street, Electric Company and the Sesame once-a-week spin-off, The Muppet Show. I remember watching those shows religiously! From school, I’d go straight home, change clothes and prepared my TV-watching snack: 5 calamansi, sliced in the center, with rock salt. I’d sprinkle the salt on the sliced calamansi, then squeeze the salty-sour juice in my awaiting mouth. then after I drained every last drop, I’d eat the emptied pulp pouches with some more salt. You should try it, it’s good! Then after the TV shows, I’d swim in our pool, pretending I was Mark Harris, the Man From Atlantis. Sigh, it really brings me back to the days when my biggest problem, the most difficult obstacle to hurdle, was my unfinished wicker basket in Work Ed. Life was simpler, easier, not necessarily happier, but simpler, easier. I really loved Beaker here, and the Swedish Chef, the 2 characters who didn’t really speak. And the monster who ate the rats. Sigh. Nostalgia is like rectal itch, it creeps up on you when you least expect it. *cricket, cricket…*

Sabang may not have been the most strikingly beautiful place we’ve been to, but definitely it gave me a lot of images to work with. For sure, it’s one of my all-time favorite places, as far as photo output is concerned. Of course, being in a beach resort, I was able to get images from the beach and thereabouts:

And of course our stint over at the Underground River and the Mangrove Tour bore many photos, and here are some of my favorites:

Throughout the trip, one theme emerged prominently as the one I gravitated towards the most: reflections. I didn’t even realize I was capturing different types of reflections until I got home and reviewed the photos. Some trips it’s people portraits, sometimes it’s landscapes, this time it’s all about reflections.

The mangrove gave up great images because the waters were so still that the reflected images are almost exact upside-down copies of the originals. If you stare long enough, you get disoriented with what’s up and what’s down:

Here’s another mangrove shot, but this time, with the sun shining high in the sky, it gave a washed out background to complement the lush green foliage:

Here’s a shot of the resort as reflected on the blue water of the infinity pool:

This one captured the most colorful of the 3 sunsets we witnessed as reflected on the wet sand:

Take a look at this picture:

I took this photo of the leaf from underwater looking up. Because the water was so clear, it ended up sort of looking like I captured it as it fell from the sky. I swear, we could’ve spent an entire day just soaking in the water there.

Now we get to the 2 pictures I was most excited about. The first, is my latest attempt at panoramic photography. This time it took around 15 images of the shoreline, from end to end. Of course, CS3 did all the hard work, as it stitched all the photos into one seamless image. It’s actually very easy, you should try it, in case you’re curious about it.

Of course it ended up having a fish-eye effect, because I took the pictures from one standpoint. It’s so much fun, and it’s so easy, thanks to CS3!

The other picture is the elusive star trails. I’ve posted a couple of attempts through the months, but none really turned out the way I wanted them too. In my humble opinion, of the trick shots that I’ve learned since I started with the hobby, star trails would hands down be the most difficult. Too many factors needed to be ideal to make the shot possible: you should be away from the city, the area shouldn’t be well lit, there shouldn’t be a big moon, it should be a cloudless sky, you should shoot pointing north, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But I was so happy that I finally got a north shot for the first time, and got the concentric circles that I’ve been trying to capture all these months. Happy!

So that’s it for Sabang, Palawan, the first leg of our long vacation for this year. Next up, our pictures for the 2nd leg, when we stayed in Mandala Spa in Boracay, Aklan. But for sure, we’ll be back in Sabang as soon as our roving feet lead us back there again.

I love any Top Ten topic that involves movie titles. It’s my guilty pleasure. Sometimes a good title can spell the difference between a hit and a flop. Did you know that Julia Robert’s “Pretty Woman” was originally given the title: “3000”, because this was the amount in dollars you had to pay if you wanted her for the night. Test audiences thought, based on that title, that the movie was about hookers from the moon, so they scrapped it.

With New Moon fever in full effect, and with all the New Moon spoofs going around on YouTube, this is my hands-down favorite.

Gaga is truly the perfect word to describe Lady Gaga. The video for her latest song, from her repackaged first album, The Fame Monster, the bizarre Bad Romance. I swear, this video reminds me of some of my more whacked out dreams. She’s crazy, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. What a trip.

And since I’m in a Gaga mood, here’s Lady Gaga again, this time featured in the Beyonce song Video Phone. It’s still from her I Am…Sasha Fierce album, but Like Fame Monster, Beyonce’s album will be repackaged into a Platinum Edition, and it’s there where the version with Lady Gaga will be found. It’s nice seeing them together in one video. Never thought I’d see the day. It’s like an explosion of gay icon-ness! It’s like a drag queen duet.

What we enjoyed most of the time we were in Sabang, was the sun, the sand, the surf. I don’t think we’ve ever soaked in the Philippines shores as much as we did here. The conditions were ideal: no rocks beneath our feet, just fine powdery sand, warm water temperatures, and rollicking waves that reduced us to little kids, squealing in delight as the waves pounded us silly.

But outside of frying under the sun like rows of daing, our trip had 2 highlights: The Puerto Prinsesa Subterranean River National Park (Underground River) and the Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour. We did the Underground River first. From the resort, we did a scenic 5-minute walk along the beach to the port, then we took a short, maybe 5-10 minute boat ride to the River. On the boat, I met a lovely little puppy that I cuddled with all throughout the trip.

When we got there, from the shore, you do a super short hike to the mouth of the cave, and what greets you is a beautiful scene, especially for us, because we were the very first visitors for the day:

No amount of pictures could do justice to how spectacular it looks inside. No wonder it’s our only finalist to make it to the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Speaking of, in case you might want to vote, click here. Trying to take a picture of one rock or stalagmite or stalactite inside the cave would be taking taking a photo of half a toenail of a person: it just do the whole any justice. But anyway, here are a couple that I took anyway:

The “Cathedral”

Part of the “vegetable section” (I think this is the pechay?)

One of the many bats inside the cave. They hang upside down on the rocky cliffs.

The other highlight of the trip was the Mangrove Paddle Boat Tour, with the inimitable and unforgettable Lady Mangrove.

Not to be confused with Lady Gaga, Lady Mangrove is one of many valiant volunteers who patrol the ecological treasure trove that is the mangrove. Mangroves are essential to the ecology because it’s like the nursery of many animals and fish. Without it, the ecology will be crippled irreparably. Lady Mangrove with a couple of other volunteers subsist on the 100 pesos per visitor fee they collect. We left a bigger amount to help them out because they do valuable work that we should all be thankful for. They do the dirty job that few of us would undertake as our lot in life. I really hope the government helps out these little not-so-well known nature sites. Scientists from the U.S., Africa, and Europe have all been amazed at what they call one of the oldest mangroves in the world. And they say the mangroves here, called bakawan locally, are unique in all the world. They are candle-shaped, as opposed to the more common branchier types found everywhere else. Plus, they grow tall as the trees in a primary forest, not short like the other mangroves I’ve seen. Plus, they reflect beautifully on the calm water surface:

We also saw different animals like birds, snakes and monitor lizards or bayawak, like this one we found resting on a branch:

Another plentiful denizen of the mangroves are the mudskippers. They litter the banks of the river in droves! And they don’t seem to be scared of humans. They don’t skip away until you’re really close. Lady Mangrove said they also eat the mudskippers as part of their regular diet.

And at the end of the tour, Lady Mangrove even sings a song she wrote to cap off the tour. I have a video of it, and I was supposed to post it, but I can’t seem to rotate the video. I recorded it vertically, but my camera recorded it sideways. Anyone who can help me rotate it so you guys don’t have to watch it sideways? I can seem to rotate it either on iPhoto or even YouTube. Anyway, another nice perk after taking the tour, is that every visitor gets to plant a baby bakawan on the shores of the mangrove during low tide, and as the years pass, it will take root and be part of the whole mangrove network. Nice touch.

And then we get to the wood worm. Known as tamilok locally, it’s a delicacy that’s insanely popular in the area. Visitors are offered to try and eat a bite or two of the supposed aphrodisiac. It’s called a wood worm, but Lady Mangrove said it’s actually closer to shellfish, like oysters. They just wash the tamilok, put it in some vinegar, maybe sprinkle some salt, and off you go!

You’ll find the wood worms burrowed in rotting wood, specifically bakawan that have since fallen and died. Once the wood is chopped open, the tamilok instantly dies. You can then pull out the alien-looking worm easily from the groove it has gored into the wood. We got a live demo on how to find tamilok in the wild. lady mangrove found a branch in a dead stump, chopped it open, and true enough there was one big fat one inside, which died once the air hit it.

It’s got a hard helmet-like head that has what looks to me like a beak-like mouth, and a scissor-like tail that’s pretty sharp. It looks really gross (and in this particular picture, slightly obscene), therefore I refused to taste it. I have worm phobia so it took everything in me to even just touch it, much less eat it. Delle, on the other hand, decided to try it.

She was just posing here, she didn’t eat the whole thing. They just cut a portion of it, she swished it around some vinegar, put some rock salt, and here’s her actual moment of truth:

Blech. No thank you. They said it tasted like gelatinous oysters. *faints*